It's been one of the most discussed technological failures of 2016, but as the dust settles around Samsung's recalled Galaxy Note 7 smartphone, one question remains: what actually went wrong with the phones?
Samsung has finally announced the answer or answers.
There were two battery manufacturing issues which caused the Note 7 to go up in flames. The first one related to battery size: batteries made by Samsung's SDI group were too small in one corner, causing negative electrodues to be bent and increase the likelihood of short circuiting.
The second issue was with batteries from a third party provider, Amperex Technology Ltd, which were found to be incorrectly welded. Points left on the batteries were able to penetrate protective insulating.
Before announcing the findings DJ Koh, President of Samsung Mobile said he wanted to "deeply apologise" for the incident.
In a statement Samsung said: "Samsung's investigation, as well as the investigations completed by three independent industry organisations, concluded that the batteries were the cause of the Galaxy Note7 incidents."
After explaining the issues, the South Korean company went on today to announce its earnings in 2016, recording its highest profit jump in three years despite the phone issues.
Samsung Electronics, the unit that mobile comes under, saw sales drop around two per cent but overall the company announced its full-year operating profit in 2016 was 29.24 trillion won (£20 bn).
A manufacturing engineering company, Instrumental, investigated the errors affecting the flagship phone last year.
According to Instrumental's teardown of the device, the Note 7's battery didn't have enough physical room for error. Samsung made the battery thinner, removing thickness margins, meaning the separators between the positive and negative layers may have been too thin, increasing the chance of these elements touching and sparking.
In addition, Instrumental pointed out that when batteries charge, chemical processes cause the lithium to migrate and the battery to "mechanically swell". Usually, around 10 per cent extra space is required to compensate for this, but the battery in the Note 7 entirely filled its pocket. This increased the risk of 'explosion'.
Read more: Why Samsung's Note 7 crisis could finally help solve the problem of poor battery life
The design wasn't completely reckless, though. Instrumental noted that the battery sits within a CNC-machined pocket, which will protect it from being affected by other internal components. "Looking at the design, Samsung engineers were clearly trying to balance the risk of a super-aggressive manufacturing process to maximise capacity, while attempting to protect it internally," said Instrumnetal's engineers.
In September, Samsung was forced to suspend sales of the new phablet after reports batteries were "exploding" and catching fire while in the hands of users, just days before the phone’s UK release.
At the time, Samsung said the devices were burning up due to an “isolated battery cell issue”. An official told the Yonhap News Agency in South Korea that a "problematic battery" had been installed in "less than 0.1 per cent of the entire volume sold."
Customers who had already bought the phones posted videos online showing the badly scorched devices, including YouTube user Ariel Gonzalez.
"Came home from work, put it on to charge for a little bit before I had class," Gonzalez said. “Went to put it on my waist and it caught fire. Yup. Brand new phone, not even two weeks old. Be careful out there, everyone rocking the new Note 7, might catch fire."
The tech giant ordered a global recall of at least 2.5 million devices, with hopes this would be the end of the crisis. It assured customers the fixed devices were safe.
It was assumed the smartphone's troubles were behind Samsung, but last week a replacement Note 7 began emitting smoke on a US plane. A Southwest Airlines flight to Baltimore was evacuated on Wednesday after smoke was spotted while the plane was at the boarding gate. The plane was evacuated and no injuries were reported.
The wife of the owner of the phone, Sarah Green, told Reuters her husband had replaced the device about two weeks ago, after getting a text message from Samsung.
On October 10, according to South Korean news agency Yonhap, the company decided to temporarily halt production of the Galaxy Note 7 following talks with safety regulators as the replacement handsets also pose a significant fire risk and health and safety issue. This decision has now been made permanent.
In a statement released by the company, it simply said it will move quickly to investigate the reported case and work with the US Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC).
“We remain in close contact with the CPSC throughout this process. If we conclude a safety issue exists, we will work with the CPSC to take immediate steps to address the situation,” said Samsung.
Samsung and the US Consumer Product Safety Commission announced a formal recall, meaning that every Galaxy Note 7 unit needed to be returned immediately.
An official investigation revealed reports of 13 burns and 47 reports of property damage directly related to the recall. Figures suggest a total of 1.9 million phones will be affected by the recall including the initial one million original Note 7s, and 900,000 'replacement' handsets.
Samsung advised customers to contact the network operator or shop where they purchased the original device. It has put in place a policy so that owners can exchange the device for a different Samsung smartphone, such as the Galaxy S7 or S7 Edge, and customers should receive a $25 (£20) giftcard or bill credit as well as the new device.
Alternatively, owners should be able to receive a full refund at their point of purchase.
When returning the devices, users were told to power down their device and Samsung has been sending out "fireproof" packing with special gloves to to ensure the safe return of its now obsolete device in.
Some Note 7 owners weren't ready to give up their device, but unfortunately due to the issues Samsung had to force them.
People in New Zealand who haven't returned the phones and have decided to continue to use them aren't being given a choice going forward. Samsung has told customers it will disconnect their service.
"As part of our commitment to ongoing safety, Samsung would like to make our customers aware of plans to discontinue network service for Note7 devices," the firm said in a statement. From November 18, anyone with a Note 7 in the country will not be able to connect to any network: meaning no data, texts, or calls – although the devices will still connect to Wi-Fi networks.
"We strongly urge any customers still using their Note7 to return their device to the place of purchase for a refund or replacement," the New Zealand branch of the company said. "Between November 4-18, we will contact our customers on at least two separate occasions with information about this network discontinuation event to ensure they have received adequate notice."
Samsung’s reputation as an innovative tech company has suffered since the first announcements of the faulty batteries. This comes at a particularly crucial time in the smartphone market as Apple recently announced its new iPhone 7 range and Google has revealed it is making its own smartphones, the Google Pixel, in-house for the first time. Samsung’s credibility as a smartphone pioneer will be adversely affected in this increasingly competitive market.
"This is one of their flagship products, one of the areas that motors brand values. Phones exploding in plane holds is going to leave a lasting impression, whatever Samsung does to fix the situation," Vijay Michalik, research analyst at Frost & Sullivan, told WIRED.
The battery problem in the Note 7 may be down to wider competition in the smartphone market.
"When you look at pushing the boundaries of battery technology, when you're putting more power inside a smaller area there's more room for error," added Michalik. "But in the future, we will be evolving to new types of battery technology that potentially won't be susceptible to the same extreme failures.
For Samsung to recover its reputation, Michalik believes it needs to underscore this current episode and move on.
"They need to move forward with the S8 and to continue to display some of their more innovative products. We consider VR to be one of the next big emerging areas and Samsung has a strong position there, which puts them far above the competition in that space," said Michalik.
It’s not only reputations that have been affected at Samsung. Analysts have estimated the first recall may have cost the company between $1billion (£805million) and $2bn (£1.61bn), due to the cost of replacing the phones and falls in the South Korean company’s share price.
The company was forced to file a revised operating profit estimate of 5.2 trillion won (£4bn), compared to the 7.8 trillion won it announced only a week before. Samsung also slashed its third-quarter sales estimate by four per cent.
Recently, the firm reportedly issued a copyright takedown for a parody video that showed a Grand Theft Auto 5 mod in which a Samsung Galaxy Note 7 was used as a weapon. The YouTube link no longer plays, and instead an error message is shown in its place. "This video is no longer available due to a copyright claim by Samsung Electronics America, Inc. and its affiliates."
The original description read: "GTA 5 Mod Showcasing the explosive Samsung Galaxy Note 7. You can blow people up with a Samsung Galaxy Note 7 in GTA V."
In the US, PhoneArena has reported that Samsung's battery issues are not constrained to the Note 7. An anonymous source, who works for a US wireless carrier, told the site that a customer came in with an exploded Galaxy S7 Edge, which was given to him as a replacement device.
A spokesperson for Samsung told WIRED it was unable to comment on the specific incident until it has been able to examine the device.
"Customer safety remains our highest priority and we want to work with any customer who has experienced an issue with a Samsung product in order to investigate the matter and support them," said the spokesperson.
It appears that overall, Samsung customers are not happy with the recent turn of events. It was announced on October 25 that more than 500 Galaxy Note 7 owners in South Korea have filed a lawsuit against Samsung over its handling of the device's recall process.
The plaintiffs want compensation from Samsung for the the costs they had to bear to visit shops to exchange their phones, for the time they had to wait to transfer data from the faulty device to the new phone, and also the pyschological harm from using the product.
The consumers are asking for 500,000 won (£361) compensation per head, though the amount might increase later.
Another Galaxy Note 7 owner, this time in Flordia, US, has reportedly sued Samsung after his phone exploded in his pocket, causing severe burns on his right leg.
Samsung's Galaxy Note 7 saga appears to have reached an end after the company says it is 'truly sorry', in an open letter to its customers.
In the letter, Samsung admitted it fell short on its promise to offer "best-in-class safety and quality" in its products. It apologised for not living up to customers' expectations or its own standards with the faulty Note 7 device.
Moving forward, Samsung said it is "fully committed" to identifying and addressing the battery problems the Note 7 faced, which caused the phone to burst into flames when charged. It will share the findings once the investigations are completed.
The letter ended by stating: "We will listen to you, learn from this and act in a way that allows us to win back your trust," and was signed by Samsung's European president and CEO, YH Eom.
The company is now looking towards a "new start" after problems with the smartphone.
On the 47th anniversary of the beginning of the South Korean company, Kwon Oh-hyun told Samsung employees: “The latest crisis made us look back at ourselves and think maybe we have grown complacent, and it served as momentum for a new start."
“We should continue to push for innovation in order to strengthen our competitiveness and technology leadership,” added Kwon.
As part of this new start, Samsung appears to be moving on from the faulty device and is preparing a compensation program for Note 7 owners to get their hands on the new Galaxy S8 device. The phone is set for release in March 2017, and customers are set to receive the new device for free or at a discounted price.
“The new compensation program is designed to make it easier for those who exchange their Galaxy Note 7 with existing smartphones, to shift into our next model coming next year,” a Samsung spokesperson told The Korea Economic Daily.
No details have been released about how the company will carry out the compensation program yet.
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
